Shoe stiffener



April 18, 1939. w ow 2,154,571

SHOE STIFFENER Filed Jan. 25, 1937 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 Fig. 5. /50

April 18, 1939. w. HOWARD 2,

SHOE STIFFENER Filed Jan. 25, 1937 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 [E a W- l atent'edApr. 1939 UNITED STATES snon STIEFENER.

Wlllard Howard, Wabam Masa, assignor to The Gelastic Corporation,Arlington, N. .L, a corporation of Delaware Application January 25,1937, Serial No. 122,155 2 Claims. (01. 12-146) This inventionrelates'to shoe stifleners and is herein illustrated as embodied in amolded counter stiffener and a method of making it.

It is desirable that shoe stifieners should have properly locatedportions which are respectively hard and stiff, and tough and resilient.For example, it is desirable that a counter stiflener should have ahard, unyielding lower portion so as to give a firm support to the lowerpart of the quarter of a shoe upper but that the upper portion, andparticularly its. margin, should be somewhat flexible and resilient soas to add to the comfort of the wearer and be capable of resuming itsshape it deformed. To this end,

in accordance with the present invention, a selected portion of a pieceof porous flexible'material is impregnated with a substance capable ofrendering that portion hard and stiff; and an adjacent portion isimpregnated with a substance capable of rendering said adjacent portiontough and resilient, the junction between the stiilening substance andthe resilient substance being oblique to the opposite faces of thematerial. A molded stifiener is then made from the piece thus treated.'I'here results a shoe stifiener of a single piece impregnated indiflerent localities with different substances of such nature thatstiffness and resilience are attained respectively in the desiredlocalities.

Referring to the accompanying drawings,

Fig. 1 is an elevation of a receptacle containing a stiilening substancein solution, one wall of the receptacle being'broken away to show astrip of porous flexible material in process of having first one marginand then the opposite margin along the side edges of "the stripimmersed; Fig.2isasimilarviewshowingthe middle portion of the same stripbeing immersed in a resilient substance in solution;

Fig. 3 is a plan of the same strip, after it has been impregnated in themanner illustrated in Figs. 1 and 2, showing how stiflener blanks may abe died-out 0! it; Fig. 4 is a section through one of the blanks alterits upper margin has been skived;

Fig. 5 is a perspective of a finished molded counter: Fig. 6 isan'elevation similar to Fig. l but .50 showing a counter blank havingits lower portion immersed in a stiffening substance in solution; and

Fig. 7 is an elevation similar to Fig. 2 showing' the upper-portion oitheblank being im-.

66 merled-in a resilient substance in solution.

e As illustrated in Figs. -1 and 2, a strip of porous flexible materialI such for example as kraft paper having a width somewhat less than thecombined height of two counterstifieners has its oppositelengthwise-extending margins impregnated with a solution of a stifieningsubstance and its middle portion impregnated with a solution ofresilient substance. As shown in Fig. 1, first one margin and then theother margin is immersed in a solution of a stiffening substance 1; 9contained in a receptacle I I until the immersed margin in each caseisthoroughly impregnated. The solution may, for example, be as follows:'

.Parts by weight 7 Cumar resin- 16.2 Celluloid 15.2 Castor il 3 Acetone65.6

In order that there shall be no abrupt line of demarcation between thehard still lower portionof the finished counter stiflener and theflexible resilient upper portion, the immersions of the margins arecarried out as shown in Fig. 1 25 with the strip inclined. to thesurface of the solution. The stiffening substance which rea mains in thestrip after the strip has dried by evaporation of the solvent acetone issufilciently thermoplastic so that molding under heat may so later becarried out. The middle portion oi! the dried strip is now'impregnatedwith a substance which will render it tough and resilient. To this end,a. solution of rubber, or rubberlike material such as neoprene, mayconveniently be employed.

As shown in Fig. 2, the middle portion of the strip is immersed in anaqueous dispersion ll of rubber, such as vulcanizable rubber latex,which is contained in a receptacle l6 and the strip may be driedsomewhat. The opposite margins 01' 40 the strip are at this stageimpregnated with stiflening substance, the portion thus impregnatedbeing indicated at 90, and the middle portion is impregnated with theresilient substance,

the portion thus impregnated being indicated 45 of the strip at an angleto the surface of the solution or dope 9, the junction between thestiffening substance and the resilient substance, as indicated at 2 I isoblique to the opposite faces of the blank. The lower portion of eachstiffener, I including the inturned flange 23, is very hard and stiff,due to the presence of the stiflening substance; and the upper portionis flexible and resilient, due to the presence of the resilientsubstance, the oblique ,joint2l ensuring that the change in flexibilityfrom the lower portion to the upper portion shall be gradual and notabrupt.

Figs. 6 and 7 illustrate a slightly different procedure employed inmaking a blank like that of Fig. 4. According to this procedure, acounter stiffener blank 25 of proper outline and made of kraft paper orother suitable material has its lower portion immersed in the solution 9of stiffening substance, the blankbeing maintained at an angle to thesurface of the solution as shown in Fig. 6. After having been dried, theupper portion of the blank is immersed in the solution of rubber iii.The blank is then further dried and seasoned and thereafter has itsupper margin skived. Such a blank has the appearance in cross section ofthe blank shown in Fig. 4 and may be molded to produce a finishedstifiener such as is shown in Fig. 5.

Although a particular stiflener and particular procedures of making ithave been set forth, it should be understood that the invention is notlimited in the scope of its application to the particular article andprocedures which have been shown and described.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim as new and desire tosecure by Letters Patent of the United States is:

1. The method of making a molded counter stiflener which comprisesimpregnating a selected portion of a piece of porous flexible sheetmaterial with a solution of a thermoplastic stiffening substance ,byimmersing said portion in the solution while maintaining the sheetmaterialin an inclined position with respect to the surface of thesolution, impregnating an adjacent portion of the sheet material with aresilient substance, drying the material, and then molding thethermoplastic blank into a counter stiffener by heat and pressure.

2. The method of making molded counter stiffeners which comprisesproviding a strip of porous flexible sheet material of a width somewhatless than the combined height of two stifieners and impregnated at itsopposite margins with a stifiening substance and at its middle portionwith a resilient substance, the junction between the stiffeningsubstance and the resilient substance being oblique to the oppositefaces of the strip, cutting blanks from the strip thus impregnated insuch manner that the lower portion of each blank is impregnated with thestiffening substance and the upper portion with the resilient substance,and skiving the blanks and molding them into shape.

WILLARD HOWARD.

